Whitaker Point - Hawksbill Crag

Last night was our first taste of staying on a pull-off in a National Forest. We had read about it but had not experienced it for ourselves. It’s quiet. Very.. Very.. Quiet. A woodpecker was my morning alarm clock.

Waking Up In A Forest

We worked a normal day yesterday but headed into the forest at the end of our day. We had a little sun to spare but decided it wasn’t enough to comfortably make a three mile hike and enjoy it. We pulled off and slept in a random spot in the middle of the forest.

Sleeping in the middle of the forest is a bit intoxicating. It’s very quiet and the sounds are relaxing. We slept with our windows wide open and woke to a beautiful sunrise and a woodpecker pounding on a tree. The weather is absolutely wonderful right now.

We decided to hike a more popular trail we had found online. We took our time getting ready and headed to our hike. The road to the hike is off the highway. It’s approximately six miles down a long dirt road. The road is bumpy, narrow, and uneven in plenty of places.

Hiking - Whitaker Point

The hike was heavily traveled. There were tons of families and folks of various body types heading in and coming back. This is good because I’m fat and if you see nothing but fit people coming off the trail then I’m likely to have a heart attack and die in the middle of the forest.

We took an aggressive pace and hiked approximately 1.5 miles inland. The hike is mostly down hill on the way in with the trail moderately paved from all the traffic. You can tell this would be a very pretty hike in a different season. Right now all the trees are dead and there isn’t much color. Our pictures are pretty boring and dull.